Kelsey Landauer ’12
Sports Editor

This Oct., Brian Hershey ’12 will pack up his winter coat and hand warmers as he gets ready to make his trip to the Leadership Camp in Manitoba, Canada, amongst the planet’s target species of global warming—polar bears. Not only will he be studying the behavior of this arctic animal, but he will also apply his passion for improving the environment and world travel, to saving these creatures in peril.

Hershey was named this years green teen finalist in this year’s Arctic Ambassadors Leadership Camp Competition presented by Gault Energy Polar Bear International (PBI) Alliance.

The applicants in this contest were asked to compose a piece in 1,000 words or less explaining why he or she meets the criteria for a “green teen” and express their ideas for improving the current state of the environment for polar bears.

“I always wanted to go to the arctic and to work with polar bears and leading scientists,” said Hershey. Through an original and inspiring proposal, he was able to make his dream a reality.

His winning idea was to socially connect the high school in Manitoba to Staples through Facebook in order to keep us up to date with their efforts of preserving the polar bear species, while Staples would update the Manitoba students of their efforts to maintain an eco-friendly town.

While at Leadership camp, Hershey will be working with 15 other students from around the world to study the effect of global warming on wild life. He will also share his studies and observations with peers back in Fairfield County through a personal blog. The student ambassadors will have many new experiences such as riding in a tundra buggy, a giant school bus-like vehicle that is ten feet off the ground and drives up glaciers to follow the polar bears.

“I’m excited to meet kids who are interested in the same things I am, and to meet the researcher’s that I will be working with,” Hershey said.

Being a world traveler starting at a young age contributed to his desire to be a part of this program. Hershey has been exposed to an array of different types of societies. This has allowed him to have a better grasp on what our society is doing wrong than most other teens would.

As the best man for the job, Hershey highly anticipates making contributions to a meaningful cause, and bringing his social networking method to life.